BEN Hopkins and his pony Merlin have achieved the stuff dreams are made of after taking the British Individual, European Team and World Individual Gold medals all in the space of one month.

Ben from Raglan, started his conquest at he beginning of July where he travelled to Tattersalls in Ireland with his Welsh team mates to compete in the European Team Championships.

The team led from the start and smashed the reserve placed England team by over 80 points. After spending eight days in Ireland the celebrations flowed well into the night, but there wasn't much time to be had as Hopkins and Merlin both had to return to the British Individual Championships which this year was being held in David Broome Event Centre in Chepstow.

Hopkins competed over a series of 21 races and took the top spot in the semi finals. Following another eight races, Hopkins and Merlin qualified joint first for the final, where they took the field apart with a race in hand beat England rider Avii Effeny by 15 points to secure the British Title.

With no time to waste, both rider and pony were back on the road for a 36 hour long journey from Chepstow to Copenhagen to compete in the biggest contest of the three - the World Individual Title.

Hopkins was the favourite from the beginning but in this game anything can happen. He held his nerve through the qualifying rounds and once again gained the top spot in the grand final. 

Never dropping out of first place Ben took the World title 15 points over French rider Paul Barreau who took the silver medal over English bronze medalist Ellie Tutt.

For any young rider, bagging three gold medals at the British, European and World Championships really is a massive achievement and Hopkins and Merlin have done Wales proud.